ex nihil - something from nothing
Angelo Stagnaro's
SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: A GUIDE TO MODERN COLD READING A Mentalist's Guide to Reading People's Minds & Futures for Fun & Profit Cold Reading  n : a general means used by professional mentalists, stage magicians and charlatans to ascertain ostensibly secret information in order to simulate psychic abilities such as ESP, telepathy and precognition. They largely do so by relaying on experiences common to humanity in general. Also known as the P.T. Barnum Effect.
COLD READING "Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." - Dr. Jonas Salk The "P. T. Barnum Effect." Cold reading is very simple and is easily learned by most people. However, once learned, it requires practice. The following suggestions are taken directly from Ray Hyman's classic book, "The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research." These are the techniques "psychics" have been found to use to generate what seems like paranormal effects. Psychologists have identified these techniques as the "P. T. Barnum Effect" or the "Forer Effect." Despite what most people will claim, P. T. Barnum did not say "a sucker is born every minute" though, I'm sure, he firmly believed it. The expression was actually coined by his competitor, a banker named David Hannum, owner and perpetrator of the faked Cardiff Giant "Fossil." Psychologist Paul Meehl, coined the term "Barnum Effect" due to the famed showman's reputation as a flimflam artist. P. T. Barnum is most often associated with circus sideshows but he also worked very hard at developing "psychics" from ordinary people who, though talented, had absolutely no preternatural skills. P. T. Barnum was first and foremost a business man and would not let a lie, or a series of them, get in the way of a profit. Like many other people in similar circumstances, he was an expert in human relations and marketing. He knew what motivated humanity and how to manipulate them for his own purposes. In keeping with this philosophy, I have produced an analysis herein of the principles of the P. T. Barnum Effect.
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